NAIROBI: Kenyan former world 800 metres bronze medallist Kipy­egon Bett died on Sunday from kidney and liver failure at the age of 26, his family said.

Bett was one of Kenya’s most promising middle distance runners but was banned by the World Athletics Integrity Unit in 2018 for four years after he tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance erythropoietin.

He denied ever using the blood-boosting drug.

His ban meant he was locked out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 world championship.

“He went into a depression and started drinking heavily,” Bett’s sister Purity Kirui told AFP.

Kirui said Bett had been taken into hospital a week before his death. He was later discharged but then readmitted on Friday after his condition worsened.

“He had been having problems with his kidneys,” Kirui said. “But later the doctors realised that his liver was failing as well and they prescribed some drugs for him on the first visit to the hospital, only for the doctors to discover that both of his organs had failed before he passed on Sunday morning at 11 am.”

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024